Claude Skills Guide

Claude Code Security Code Review Checklist Automation

Security code reviews are critical for maintaining secure applications, but they can be repetitive and time-consuming. Automating security checklist items with Claude Code skills frees developers to focus on complex security decisions while ensuring consistent coverage across all pull requests.

Why Automate Security Checklists

Manual security reviews often suffer from inconsistency. Different reviewers catch different issues, and simple checklist items get overlooked during time pressure. Automation solves this by applying the same checks to every commit, every time.

Claude Code skills excel at this because they combine natural language understanding with tool execution. You describe what to check, and the skill handles the implementation across your codebase.

Setting Up for Security Review

Start by ensuring Claude Code has access to your codebase and understands the programming languages you use. Create a CLAUDE.md file in your project root to initialize context, then navigate to your project directory. The automation approach works by combining Claude Code’s understanding of code semantics with established security best practices—handling repetitive checks consistently while flagging complex issues that require human judgment.

Building Your Security Checklist Automation

Setting Up the Foundation

Start by creating a skill dedicated to security checks. The supermemory skill helps maintain your checklist context across Claude sessions, so your security rules persist between code reviews.

/supermemory remember my security checklist: 
1. Input validation on all user-facing endpoints
2. SQL injection prevention patterns
3. Authentication token handling
4. Sensitive data exposure checks
5. Dependency vulnerability scanning

Input Validation Verification

Every user input represents a potential attack vector. Automating validation checks ensures nothing slips through.

Create a skill that scans your codebase for validation patterns:

// security-validation-check.js
const checks = [
  { pattern: /req\.body\.\w+/, needsValidation: true },
  { pattern: /query\.\w+/, needsValidation: true },
  { pattern: /params\.\w+/, needsValidation: true }
];

function validateInputs(fileContent) {
  const inputs = fileContent.match(/req\.(body|query|params)\.\w+/g) || [];
  const validations = fileContent.match(/validate\(|sanitize\(|escape\(/g) || [];
  
  return {
    inputsFound: inputs.length,
    validationsFound: validations.length,
    coverage: validations.length / inputs.length
  };
}

Run this check using the frontend-design skill if you’re working with forms, or directly invoke your custom security skill on backend code.

SQL Injection Prevention

SQL injection remains one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities. Automate detection of unsafe database queries:

# sql_injection_check.py
import re

UNSAFE_PATTERNS = [
    r'execute\([^)]*\+',  # String concatenation in execute
    r'query\([^)]*\+',     # String concatenation in query
    r'\.format\([^)]*\%s', # Unsafe format strings
]

def check_sql_injection(file_content):
    issues = []
    for i, line in enumerate(file_content.split('\n')):
        for pattern in UNSAFE_PATTERNS:
            if re.search(pattern, line):
                issues.append(f"Line {i+1}: Potential SQL injection risk")
    return issues

The tdd skill complements this by generating parameterized query examples when it detects unsafe patterns in your code.

Authentication Token Handling

Improper token handling leads to session hijacking. Automate checks for secure token practices:

/your-security-skill check-token-handling in this file:
- Verify tokens are generated using secure random
- Check tokens aren't logged or exposed in errors
- Confirm tokens are compared using constant-time algorithms
- Ensure tokens are invalidated on logout

For projects using JWT, add checks for algorithm verification and expiration validation.

Sensitive Data Exposure

Prevent accidental exposure of secrets, API keys, and personal data:

# .securitycheck.yml
patterns:
  api_key:
    regex: "(?i)(api[_-]?key|apikey)\\s*[=:]\\s*['\\\"]?[a-z0-9]{20,}"
    severity: critical
  password:
    regex: "(?i)(password|passwd|pwd)\\s*[=:]\\s*['\\\"]?[^'\\\"\\s]{8,}"
    severity: critical
  private_key:
    regex: "-----BEGIN (RSA |EC |DSA )?PRIVATE KEY-----"
    severity: critical

The pdf skill helps if you need to scan documentation for accidentally embedded secrets, since it can extract text from PDF files that might contain credentials.

Dependency Vulnerability Scanning

Third-party dependencies introduce security risks. Automate this check using a CI integration:

# .github/workflows/security-check.yml
name: Security Dependency Scan
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  security:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Run security audit
        run: |
          npm audit --audit-level=high
          # or for Python
          safety check
      - name: Check for known vulnerabilities
        run: |
          npx snyk test

This runs on every pull request, catching vulnerable dependencies before they reach production.

Integrating Skills into Your Workflow

Pre-Commit Checks

Run lightweight checks before code reaches review:

# .git/hooks/pre-commit
#!/bin/bash
claude /security-check --files $(git diff --cached --name-only)

Pull Request Automation

For comprehensive reviews, invoke your security skill in the PR:

/security-review analyze the following PR:
- Changes: [PR diff URL]
- Language: TypeScript
- Framework: Express.js

The skill runs all configured checks and reports findings in a structured format.

Review Feedback Loop

When security issues are found, use the tdd skill to generate remediation tests:

/tdd write security tests for the input validation fixes in this code:
[paste fixed code]

This creates regression tests that prevent the same issue from reappearing.

Customizing Your Checklist

Every project has specific security requirements. Adjust your automated checklist based on:

Store your custom checklist in a project-specific file that your security skill reads:

{
  "checklist": {
    "required": [
      "input_validation",
      "authentication",
      "authorization"
    ],
    "conditional": {
      "has_database": ["sql_injection", "parameterized_queries"],
      "has_user_upload": ["file_upload_validation", "malware_scanning"]
    }
  }
}

Measuring Effectiveness

Track your security automation success with metrics:

The xlsx skill helps generate reports from these metrics for team reviews and stakeholder updates.

Conclusion

Automating security code review checklists with Claude Code skills transforms security from a periodic chore into a continuous process. By automating repetitive checks, your team catches vulnerabilities earlier, reviews PRs faster, and maintains consistent security standards across all code.

Start with the checklist items that affect your project most, build incrementally, and refine based on real findings. The investment in automation pays dividends in reduced security incidents and more efficient development cycles.

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